Wednesday, May 30, 2007

So here's the last piece for the Chinese Zodiac show. It's the same size as the year of the Tiger. 10x24 inches. It was hard not to think of Bruce Lee while painting this. Not only was he already a bad ass, but his sign is Year of the Dragon. That makes him a SUPREME BAD ASS, for all eternity! Now for the segue rant:

You'd think, that in the city that Bruce Lee is buried in, he'd have a statue for all the amazing achievements he made in the short amount of time he was with us. Something to honor that. In the 16(ish) years I've lived hear, I don't think I've ever heard anything about a statue, or a plan to make this happen. Did I miss something? Where did Bruce Lee start his martial art schools? Seattle. Where did he go to college? Seattle. What city did he keep coming back to? Seattle. Where the hell is this guy's statue? Seriously! What happened? Hendrix finally got one. In 2002. (took long enough) After doing a quick search, even that statue was put together by a private company, not the city.

The thing that got me thinking about this again, was recently seeing some billboards around town that were trying to raise money for another local "celeb". It seems people want to raise money for J.P. Patches' 50th anniversary. For those reading this that didn't grow up in the North West, like myself, JP is/was the Northwest version of Bozo the clown, from what I can gather. I mean that in clown terms, not as a slight towards JP.

Anyway, let's break it down, shall we? Clown gets a statue, and Bruce Lee gets....hmmmm, lemme see......NOTHING! What Happened!?!?! I'm not even going to make clown jokes, because it's too easy. I understand the world needs to laugh, but c'mon, where and why isn't there a Bruce Lee statue already? Bruce broke so many boundaries besides just those in the martial arts field, it's ridiculous. I really don't understand why the city hasn't already done something about that. Hong Kong already did (respect). Check it. Now how bad ass does that statue look? If you read to the end of the article, even BOSNIA unveiled a statue too!

So, let's recap again. Bosnia and Hong Kong have a Bruce Lee statue and Seattle doesn't. People want a clown statue, but not a Bruce Lee statue. Maybe there is one, and I just don't know about it. Even if there's not one yet, that's ok. I can always go to his grave sight and pay my respects. If you're not from Seattle, yes, Bruce Lee's family buried him here. In Seattle. The place that still doesn't have a statue to honor him. Clown = statue. Bruce Lee = zero statue. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Ok, finally getting around to posting the rest of the zodiac pieces. One of my favorites of the show was this above painting. Dog Warriors-"Year of the Dog" If you can't figure out what movie this is referencing, I guess you're too young, or I did a bad job at the interpretation. WAAA-RIORRRS!!!!! I'm not going to tell you if you don't get it. Go ask an old person.

I was a little misty eyed to see this one go, but one of the guys that bought it had the theme to the movie on his cell phone for pete's sake! Mario, you kick ass! Besides, I think it's only right that this painting stayed on the East coast, as close to Coney Island as humanly possible. Poetic.

Quickdraw Makes the Connection- "Year of the Horse"

Year of the Rabbit.

Lost Love - "Year of the Snake"The idea for this one was based on the Medusa myth, or the Gorgons. Guess it depends on your taste of myths/movies. I just figured that this character was always portrayed as being so ugly you'd turn to stone if you gazed upon her. What if there was a really cute one that wasn't ugly? She falls in love, blah blah blah. etc. Sounds like a cheesy fairy tale story, but I figured it was worth painting. Not like there isn't a shortage of bad fairy tale ideas out there already.

Anyway, that's all of the Chinese Zodiac pieces except for one. Year of the Dragon. Why isn't that one posted yet? I'll tell ya. I feel a rant coming. It just recently surfaced, and it needs to be addressed. It is related in a round about way to the "year of the dragon", and to clowns. Don't get the connection yet? Stay tuned........

Monday, May 14, 2007

Well, it's been a week since I've gotten back from the Baldwin, New York trip, and it seems most of my time has been spent cleaning up the "fallout" from the last two, back to back shows. The studios a complete mess, trying to catch up on emails, trying to get freelance work done, and trying to get the rest of the scans together from the last show so that I can post 'em for you guys.

I'll probably post the rest in one big post, but until then, check out the "Year of the Pussycat" piece. I put off the year of the tiger and year of the dragon 'till the end, because I wanted to do, what I thought were the coolest sounding Chinese zodiac signs, last. Of course, when it was time to do them, I was stressing out because the deadline for the show was quickly approaching. I had no idea what to do for this piece, until I realized I never got to finish my Josie and the Pussycats painting for the Saturday Morning cartoon show. This seemed like a good opportunity to revisit the idea in another fashion.

I don't know how far one can go playing the tambourine, but it seems every Saturday Morning cartoon band always had one. Since I've never seen the movie, I'm not sure what they did, but if my future wife Rosario Dawson ever wants to pose for a Josie and the Pussycats painting and tell me in person, the studio doors are always open.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

What's KustomKulture Tattoo?Why is this big inflatable guy in front of the shop?Well, it's to celebrate the art opening for the Year of the Pig show last Saturday, on Cincode Mayo, no less.

That's right, last Saturday, Bill McEvoy and myself flew out to Baldwin NY for our art opening. The Chinese Zodiac, interpreted by two artists. That's twenty four paintings! I'll tell you right now, doing those twelve paintings almost put my arm in a sling, but it was worth it.

Finally got to meet crazy man Bill and see his huge zodiac paintings in person. I'm still waiting for the story about the finger Bill. It was also a pleasure to finally meet Keith Ciaramello, the owner of the KustomKulture Gallery and Tattoo shop.

Here's a raw, stitched together version of the whole wall to give you and idea of all 24 paintings that are at the shop. Gives you a better idea of all the sizes too.

There was good crew out for the show, and no shortage of Chinese food on hand at any given time. Funny thing was that I was still hungry at the end of the night.

Much thanks to Keith and his wife Terry, as well as the rest of the KustomKulture crew for letting us have the show at the shop. These guys went all out for the show. They even went as far as to have Chinese New Year decorations in the shop, even though it was technically Cincode Mayo, but who's keeping track?

The only thing I was trying to keep track of on the trip was how much cool stuff they got in the shop. There is no shortage of art to be taken in. Everything from tattoo books, graffiti books, pin striping books, how to books, prints, pin striping supplies, you name it. There's also tons of cool original art hanging in the shop. Everything from originals by The Pizz to original art by Dave Devries.The other treat in the shop is all the amazing pin striping. If there's an empty, untouched spot in the store that doesn't have pin striping on it, it must have gotten over looked because everything else in the store has gotten pin striped at one point. You almost get the feeling that if you leave any personal items laying around, someones going to pin stripe it. Check out the front door for cryin' out loud.I can't remember which pin stripers worked on the door, but Keith would know. He knows a lot about Sleestak anatomy too, just ask him.

Anyway, that's the short version of what went down. Good times over all. And just so you don't think I wasn't celebrating Cincode Mayo the night of the show, check out, I say, check out the year of the rooster piece I did for the show. 'El Anodel Gallo' That's spanish son. That's what they speak south of the border. Mexico, not Taco Bell. That's a joke son, get it? Geez. I keep a pitchin' 'em and you keep a missin' 'em.

Alright, tune in next time for posts of the rest of show. I'll be posting the rest of the art from the show, and hopefully have a better idea of when the website will be ready to go. For more pics of the show, check out Keith's blog. Also, here's where the new website will be as soon as it launches.augiepagan.com

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Well, here's the latest piece I did for the "Year of the Pig" show that's going down this Saturday. Haven't heard of the Year of the Pig show yet? Shame on you. Check out the info here. If you're anywhere near or around Queens NY this Saturday night, come on by and check out the show. Me and Bill McEvoy (aka 13:11) will be hanging both our versions of the Chinese Zodiac at the Kustom Kulture Gallery. That's a total of 24 paintings! We're both flying out for the show, so it should be good times.

Anyway, I was trying to get a little looser on the Ox painting. Busted out some rattle cans for the background and then painted an Ox on top. I happened to have a good size canvas laying around for this one, and it seemed appropriate for an Ox. Oh, and by the way, yes, that's Quick Draw in the back right (Year of the Horse) underneath the calendar that has numerous deadlines that seemed to keep moving around the month of April. His expression will make more sense when you see the whole painting. An expression that best describes my state of mind lately.

Well, still have a few paintings to tighten up for the show. Heh, heh.....heh.....(sound of nervous laughter here).